Question and Answer

Physical Healing

Question:

What the position of the OPC on physical healing? Does God still heal people today or not like he did in Bible times? Thank you and God bless.

Answer:

May the grace and peace of Christ be yours.

Thank you for your question about healing. To answer as directly as I can, we believe that all that we are and have are in the hands of God—that he heals, that he gives and takes life, and that all we have and are belong to him. As he says in Acts 17: 28 "for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'"

Specifically, we believe that God answers prayer for healing. In James 5:14 and 15 we read, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." We do not presume upon the providence of God, because sometimes, for his own good reasons, he does not choose to heal, as he did not heal Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), but he certainly has the power to do so.

About Q&A

"Questions and Answers" is a weekly feature of the OPC website. The answers come from individual ministers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church expressing their own convictions and do not necessarily represent an "official" position of the Church, especially in areas where the Standards of the Church (the Scriptures and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms) are silent.

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